Army morale hits lowest level for seven years

Morale in the British army has hit its lowest level for seven years and almost
halved since 2010, a survey has found.

Philip Hammond, The Secretary of State for Defence, said: “It is with great regret that we have had to make redundancies to deliver the reduction in the size of the Armed Forces, but unfortunately they were unavoidable due to the size of the defence deficit that this government inheritedPhoto: PA/MoD

"Due to a failed economic strategy, ministers have repeatedly returned to the services to make cuts, which may harm our ability to project force in the world."

The Ministry of Defence's survey found that the number of soldiers and officers who rate the morale of the service as low has risen from 24 per cent in 2010 to 55 per cent.

Officers are even more concerned, with 75 per cent rating the level of morale in the army as low, more than three times the number in 2010.

While morale is lower across all three forces than in 2010, it has improved in the Royal Marines and RAF in the past year and has remained at similar levels in the Royal Navy.

Overall, across all three services, 55% rated the morale of the armed forces as low, while just 12% said it was high.

The survey, which assesses and monitors attitudes of service personnel, questioned 26,077 regular personnel from mid-January until early-May this year.

Of the respondents, just four in 10 personnel across they armed forces said they would recommend joining their service to other people, compared to just over half in 2010.

And although nine in 10 members of the services said their families were proud of them, just half thought they were respected by society at large - a question that has not been asked in previous years.

The survey found that nearly half were satisfied with service life in general, while almost a third said they were dissatisfied.

Four fifths felt proud to be in their service, while just over a quarter felt valued.

An MoD spokesman said: "With any period of change there is bound to be uncertainty surrounding the future of personnel and their families which will inevitably have an impact on morale.

"We are clear that the resilience of personnel should not be underestimated. We remain committed to ensuring that we take the necessary action to address the areas of discontent such as pension benefits, morale, and integration with reserves and welfare support.

"We are extremely heartened to note that the majority of our personnel are proud to be in the services and generally feel positive about life in the armed forces and their immediate teams, the medical and dental services, and the standard of service accommodation."